Cameron Diaz is back in a blockbuster movie for the first time in a decade, and now she’s revealing why she came out of retirement for the film Back in Action. 

The actress, 52, who dazzled in white at the London premiere of the film, said the answer for her was simple. 

It was co-star Jamie Foxx, 57.

‘I had 10 years of not paying attention to anything; not accepting any advances, and then I got this script and thought that maybe it was time,’  the actress said Friday on The Graham Norton Show. 

‘If I was going to leave my family for 10 hours a day I wanted to do it with the most talented man in the entertainment business,’ she explained.

‘It is a privilege to make films, and we are all so lucky to do what we do,’ she told the audience. 

‘That the door was even open for me after a decade was amazing. I loved those 10 years for me and my family, but I thought, ‘If I let this go away, if I don’t engage again, and if I don’t give it a chance, I am a fool.’ It might be the beginning of something, but it’s here now and I am grateful for it.’

Cameron Diaz, 52, returned to acting for the first time in a decade to appear in the new action comedy Back in Action, which debuted on Netflix Friday.  But why did the actress come out of retirement? 

The veteran star has worked with Foxx twice before in 1999’s Any Given Sunday and 2014’s Annie. 

The Charlie’s Angels star credited her husband of 10 years, Benji Madden, with supporting her decision. 

Read More Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden pose in rare selfie for 10th anniversary

Diaz who shares daughter Raddix, five, and son Cardinal, about 10 months, with the Good Charlotte rocker, said the musician told her ‘”You’ve been supporting us and building the family,”‘ the actress explained, adding she had also been supportive of  his musical career and business promoting other artists. 

‘He’s like, “It’s time for us to support you and let Mommy ascend and do her thing,”‘ she said at Fortune magazines Most Powerful Women Summit, per E! News. 

Whether another project she likes will come her way is up in the air, the There’s Something About Mary star told Empire magazine in December 2024. 

‘I don’t know how I view it. It’s hard to say,’ she explained.

‘If I say it then it becomes this thing. I reserve the right to say no to doing a movie ever again, and I reserve the right to say yes if I decide to,’ the Bad Teacher leading lady declared.

‘I’m not defining anything,’ she added, admitting, ‘I’m just open to whatever makes sense for me and my family at any given moment.’

For the actress, the answer was simple – co-star Jamie Foxx, 57. ‘If I was going to leave my family for 10 hours a day I wanted to do it with the most talented man in the entertainment business,’ she explained on the Graham Norton Show 

Diaz and Foxx have been friends for some 25 years. The veteran star has worked with Foxx twice before in 1999’s Any Given Sunday and 2014’s Annie   (Pictured in Berlin  Wednesday)

The actress said she is uncertain if she will accept more acting jobs. One thing is for sure. ‘No more romcoms, only momcoms.’ she told Empire   (Pictured in London on Wednesday)

One thing is for sure. ‘No more romcoms, only momcoms.’ she said. 

In Back in Action, Diaz and Foxx stay as former CIA agents whose lives are endangered with their idenтιтies are exposed. 

Reviews for action/comedy, which debuted on Netflix Friday have been less than stellar. The thriller received an abysmal 24-percent rating from the critics at Rotten Tomatoes. 

The Daily Beast called it an ‘eye-rolling abomination,’ while The Hollywood Reporter was less severe, calling it ‘starry, frothy, cute, harmless.’